The effects of interspecies interactions and environmental conditions on biomass accumulation of sessile organisms within Oregon’s rocky mid-intertidal habitats PublicDeposited

Descriptions

With changing climate conditions and human impacts on ecosystems becoming a
big focus of study, it has become even more crucial to understand how our ecosystems
work. Community structure within rocky intertidal habitats is governed by a mix of
environmental conditions and species interactions. This project examined the effects of
different treatments designed to test three different methods of interspecies interaction:
predation, competition, and facilitation. We then examined the data in relation to the sites
where the samples were collected using MANOVA and linear-contrast analysis. We
found that biomass of barnacles, mussels, and algae often tended to be similar in different
treatments, suggesting that interspecies interactions were overall fairly weak. The site of
origin, on the other hand, had a consistent effect in determining biomass, with a general
pattern of northern sites accumulating more biomass than southern sites. We believe that
this is due to the interaction between upwelling strength and the width of the continental
shelf along the Oregon coast with regard to the roles they play in nutrient, phytoplankton,
and larval retention, leading to differences in growth rates.